As the usage of computers becomes more widespread and the technology to produce them advances, so to does the amount of communication that is enabled by them. Although most of this communication is friendly, i.e., communication between known partners with information and attachments that is not intended to do harm to or between the communicators, some communication is unfriendly. This unfriendly communication occurs mostly in the form of email virus threats. These threats include, but are not limited to, social engineering threats and script based attacks.
Social engineering email viruses convince the recipient to perform some sort of action. For example, the email convinces the recipient to launch a program, or unzip a file that allows a virus to cause harm to the recipient's computer. Script based attacks involve emails that contain embedded script, for example, but not limited to, Visual Basic Script, JavaScript, and so forth. This script executes and infects the system at different points of communication. The infection can occur when the email is viewed, or in some cases when the email is received by the recipient. Viruses are able to cause many types of harm, including but not limited to, data destruction, password capture, user activity monitoring, and so forth. The implications of these types of harms are well-known.
Protection against email viruses exists in the form of antivirus tools, but these tools only offer protection against viruses that are known to them. Thus, if a new virus is encountered, or the recipient does not have up-to-date virus protection, the virus is able to cause extensive, and sometimes irreparable, damage to the recipient's computer.
Thus, there exists a need in the art for a method or system which is able to provide a more comprehensive email virus protection. Such a method or system would ensure that even unknown viruses would not have negative effects on the recipient's computer.